The Attorney-General and Minister for Indigenous Affairs have released exposure drafts of the Native Title Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 and the Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate Legislation Amendment Regulations 2018, for public comment.

The exposure drafts are informed by the consultation earlier this year on an options paper for native title reform, which included recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission's report on 'Connection to Country', the Council of Australian Government's Investigation into Land Administration and Use, and other recent reviews.

The proposed reforms are intended to improve the native title system for all parties, including by:

streamlining claims resolution and agreement-making processes

supporting the capacity of native title holders through greater flexibility around internal decision‑making

increasing the transparency and accountability of prescribed bodies corporate (the corporations set up to manage native title) to the native title holders

improving pathways for dispute resolution following a determination of native title, and

ensuring the validity of section 31 agreements in light of the Full Federal Court of Australia's decision in McGlade v Native Title Registrar & Ors [2017] FCAFC 10.

The exposure drafts, factsheets summarising the key proposed reforms, and a public consultation paper setting out the policy objectives of these proposed reforms, can be found below:

Submissions

Submissions responding to exposure drafts of the Native Title Legislation Amendment Bill 2018 and the Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate Legislation Amendment Regulations 2018 closed on 10 December 2018. Copies of submissions received are listed below. Those that were provided in confidence have not been made public.

If you experience difficulty accessing any of the documents on this page, please contact native.title@ag.gov.au for an alternate version.